Fairy Tale STEM part two

In the first part of this post, I shared some pictures from our challenges based on the Three Little Pigs and Rapunzel. In part two I am sharing more of our fairy tale STEM projects.

3. Goldilocks

After reviewing the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, the first-grade classes engineered a bed for Goldilocks. I told students that she went back and apologized, they became friends, and sometimes she would sleep over at the Bears' house. Of course, this meant building her a bed just right for her. After printing and laminating pictures of Goldilocks, I taped six pennies to the back. This provided some weight to the figure so that the bed had to be sturdy enough. What I didn't tell them before was that I also have Bears to test -- they loved that part! Papa Bear had 3 large washers on the back, Mama Bear had two, and Baby Bear had one. Sometimes the Papa Bear collapsed the bed and they had to modify their design.

I love that many of them wanted to make sure Goldilocks has a pillow and covers on her bed. They also wanted to decorate it for her!

I also expected them to draw their bed before building. This was the first time and all the grade levels added that part of the engineering design process except Kindergarten. I have a crate with hanging folders for each grade level. Each folder has a teacher's name so we can keep their drawings.

Using fairy tales turned out to be a favorite of the students and will definitely be part of next year's plans.